Carrion de las Condes

I’m having a quiet afternoon in Carrion de Los Condes. (I need to find out what the name of the town means in English, I keep thinking of vultures.) I took a taxi from Fromista to here this morning. It was perfect walking weather, and the Camino went alongside the road, which made me feel frustrated. Such easy, straightforward walking and I can’t do it. The taxi driver was a woman about my age, and she was pedal to the metal , going 120 kph. She spoke about as much English as my Spanish, so we ran through our conversation fairly quickly, but I enjoyed riding with her. She said she transports many Peregrinos who can’t walk.

The Meseta is a wide open plateau area in Spain and about a third of the Camino travels through its small towns. It’s known for being hot. This summer’s wet weather has kept it green and full of wildflowers.

I was delivered to Carrion de Los Condes at 11:00, and found the “official” Albergue, run by nuns, and got in line. There is a guitar concert and communal meal tonight.

The check-in was memorably confused, and personable. The Europeans immediately retired to the kitchen in groups, and made lunch, with bottles of wine. Local farmers had donated crates of tomatoes and cucumbers for “the pilgrims,” and it was tempting to cook.

There’s a very nice vibe here. It’s interesting to be the only American, I think, out of 48 people. Mostly Spanish, French, Italian, and a few Asians.

Since I was early, I have a nice cozy bottom bunk next to a wall. Since I haven’t walked 20 kilometers, like the rest of the pilgrims, I’m not as tired as everyone else, but I need to rest my ankle. Here’s a few photos of the Alburgue.

5 thoughts on “Carrion de las Condes”

Re meaning of Carrion de los Contes: Vultures might not be too far off base. Guessing that this has something to do with the retaking of the city from the Moors in the 8th or 9th century by Alonso Carreño, who then changed his name to Carrion (accent grave on the “o”). Probably was nasty, most of the Reconquista was, & sadly that’s not the end of genocide or something like it for this city. Per Wikipedia in the 1290’s the city had a large Jewish population who were subject to absurdly high taxeds: ” Delegates from the city appeared before King Alphonso of Castile (probably Alfonso the Wise), informing him that the Christians of the city, because of a groundless suspicion, had risen against the Jews and killed two of them; that thereupon the Jews had sought refuge in the palace of the prince, who was absent at the time, and, when the Christians followed in pursuit, had escaped through a secret door leading into the court, and locked their pursuers in.” Nothing on Wikipedia about the aftermath but it probably wasn’t what we’d think of as justice.

Thanks for looking this up! Many churches depict St. James as “matamoros,” or the Moor Killer, wielding a sword and trampling men underneath his horse ‘s hooves. This was James the disciple?

The Camino leads you through history, and much of it is bloody. On the last day I was trekking, we passed a monument to a mass grave from the Spanish Civil War found while they were renovating the Camino in the 90’s. now that I’ve spent a month in Spain, I’d like to read more about its history.